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Taka

@astrobassball

Data person, astrophysicist, bassist, New Englander, New Yorker. He/him.

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02.05.2023
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Latest posts by Taka @astrobassball

The killing of Iranian children during an illegal war is an impeachable offense (not to mention a grave crime) and Congress should really act like it.

15 Republicans in the Senate could end this nightmare before it somehow gets even worse.

07.03.2026 02:13 πŸ‘ 12210 πŸ” 3392 πŸ’¬ 446 πŸ“Œ 149
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Tesla sued after Austin shooting suspect allegedly assaulted co-worker A 65-year-old woman says the automaker ignored warning signs before Ndiaga Diagne, the suspect in Sunday’s mass shooting, assaulted her. She sued Thursday.

the Austin mass shooter was a Tesla employee who assaulted a coworker during a company-allowed prayer break late last year

the company refused to give the victim her assailant's name so she could press charges, and he went on to become a mass shooter

www.statesman.com/business/art...

06.03.2026 17:07 πŸ‘ 5193 πŸ” 1863 πŸ’¬ 68 πŸ“Œ 137
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US economy sheds 92,000 jobs in February in sharp slide Figure far below expectations comes as doubts persist over labour market strength

US economy sheds 92,000 jobs in February in sharp slide ft.trib.al/2dcTW42

06.03.2026 13:42 πŸ‘ 90 πŸ” 33 πŸ’¬ 13 πŸ“Œ 22
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Exclusive: US investigation points to likely US responsibility in Iran school strike, sources say Military investigators believe it is likely that U.S. forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls' school that killed scores of children on Saturday, two U.S. officials told Reu...

Reuters Exclusive

"U.S. military investigators believe it is likely that U.S. forces were responsible for an apparent strike on an Iranian girls' school."

"The strike would rank among the worst cases of civilian casualties in decades of U.S. conflicts in the ​Middle East."

06.03.2026 02:50 πŸ‘ 9957 πŸ” 5240 πŸ’¬ 623 πŸ“Œ 630
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Trump's War If Trump campaigned as a President of peace, he has governed as the opposite

β€œAsked whether Americans should be worried about retaliatory attacks at home, Trump acknowledges the possibility. β€˜I guess,’ he says.”

06.03.2026 00:25 πŸ‘ 957 πŸ” 302 πŸ’¬ 82 πŸ“Œ 160
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Exclusive | Trump Is Preparing to Fire Kristi Noem The president has already been asking aides and congressional Republicans for names of potential replacements.

BREAKING: Trump is preparing to fire Kristi Noem. Gift link: www.wsj.com/politics/pol...

05.03.2026 18:07 πŸ‘ 1452 πŸ” 309 πŸ’¬ 249 πŸ“Œ 59
Kanwal Sibal @KanwalSibal
The Iranian ship will not be where it was if we had not invited it to talk part in our Milan exercise.
We were the hosts.
I am told that as per protocol for this exercise ships cannot carry any ammunition. It was defenceless.
The Iranian naval personnel had paraded before our president.
The attack by the US submarine was premeditated as the US was aware of the Iranian ship's presence in the exercise to which the US navy was invited but withdrew from participation at the last minute, presumably with this operation in mind.
The US has ignored India's sensitivities as the ship was in these waters because of India's invitation.

Kanwal Sibal @KanwalSibal The Iranian ship will not be where it was if we had not invited it to talk part in our Milan exercise. We were the hosts. I am told that as per protocol for this exercise ships cannot carry any ammunition. It was defenceless. The Iranian naval personnel had paraded before our president. The attack by the US submarine was premeditated as the US was aware of the Iranian ship's presence in the exercise to which the US navy was invited but withdrew from participation at the last minute, presumably with this operation in mind. The US has ignored India's sensitivities as the ship was in these waters because of India's invitation.

We are far from politically or militarily responsible for the US attack.
Our"responsibility" is at a moral and human plane.
A word of condolence by the Indian Navy ( after political clearance) at the loss of lives of those who were our invitees and saluted our president would be in order.
Lt Gen DP Pan... @LtGenDPPan…. β€’ 18h
Our watch gets over when the Ship leaves territorial water. Not till they get home. Their country is at war. They should have stayed in shelter of India. In international waters, they had Not sought an escort from Indian Navy. A...
11:05 PM β€’ Mar 4, 2026 β€’ 2.4M Views

We are far from politically or militarily responsible for the US attack. Our"responsibility" is at a moral and human plane. A word of condolence by the Indian Navy ( after political clearance) at the loss of lives of those who were our invitees and saluted our president would be in order. Lt Gen DP Pan... @LtGenDPPan…. β€’ 18h Our watch gets over when the Ship leaves territorial water. Not till they get home. Their country is at war. They should have stayed in shelter of India. In international waters, they had Not sought an escort from Indian Navy. A... 11:05 PM β€’ Mar 4, 2026 β€’ 2.4M Views

fwiw here's the sourcing I saw at 1am about the US sinking of an unarmed and knowingly unarmed Iranian Navy ship x.com/KanwalSibal/...

05.03.2026 14:03 πŸ‘ 208 πŸ” 107 πŸ’¬ 7 πŸ“Œ 1
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Blumenthal: "I have emerged from classified briefings deeply concerned and very fearful that we're on the precipice not only of an escalating conflict that in region, but also putting troops on the ground b/c that is almost inevitably the path the admin has chosen by its current tactical approach"

05.03.2026 13:11 πŸ‘ 4545 πŸ” 1632 πŸ’¬ 214 πŸ“Œ 96
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Gen Z males twice as likely as baby boomers to believe wives should obey husbands Global survey shows young men and boys hold more traditional views about gender roles than older generations

Social media: melting the brains of one generation at a time

www.theguardian.com/world/2026/m...

05.03.2026 11:18 πŸ‘ 16 πŸ” 3 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 0

I’ve spent years, decades, obsessing over the Bush Administration’s Iraq WMD lies, writing about them, debunking them.

I can think of no lie about Iraq WMDs told by Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld et al that comes even close to the enormity and absurdity of this lie from Donald Trump.

05.03.2026 13:07 πŸ‘ 9508 πŸ” 2737 πŸ’¬ 472 πŸ“Œ 112
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β€˜Nazi heaven’: Inside Miami campus Republicans’ racist group chat The chat is the subject of a Florida International University police investigation.

The secretary of Miami-Dade County’s GOP started a group chat for conservative students β€” and within 3 weeks, it was filled with over 400 instances of the N-word, Nazi rhetoric and writings of "dozens of ways of violently killing Black people"

05.03.2026 03:14 πŸ‘ 5535 πŸ” 2665 πŸ’¬ 284 πŸ“Œ 581
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Spanish PM SΓ‘nchez on Trump's threat to end trade:

"We are not going to be accomplices to something that is bad for the world and contrary to our values and interests simply because of fear of reprisals... We have absolute confidence in the economic, institutional & moral strength of our country."

04.03.2026 11:46 πŸ‘ 1998 πŸ” 486 πŸ’¬ 34 πŸ“Œ 51
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Spanish PM SΓ‘nchez responds to Trump:

"Spain is against this disaster... Govts are here to improve people's lives... It is absolutely unacceptable that those leaders who are unable to fulfill that mission use the smoke of war to hide their failure, and in the process, fill the pockets of a few."

04.03.2026 11:24 πŸ‘ 8324 πŸ” 2876 πŸ’¬ 201 πŸ“Œ 450

I'm sorry, if you're going to make a big show about how you've got a Department of WAR helmed by a Secretary of WAR and staffed by WARfighters, it's totally inane to then claim that your massive bombing of a foreign country constitutes something other than a war.

03.03.2026 15:37 πŸ‘ 12271 πŸ” 2656 πŸ’¬ 269 πŸ“Œ 112

Over and over again, I’ve been trying to make this case.

Republicans and β€œsensible” people will say that of course Trump won’t do a certain thing. We should just say β€œbut what if he does?”

www.liberalcurrents.com/youre-not-cr...

03.03.2026 16:20 πŸ‘ 59 πŸ” 14 πŸ’¬ 4 πŸ“Œ 0
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Warnings to citizens to evacuate 3 days into this war, when airspace is closed, is a clear sign of ZERO strategy and planning by the Trump admin.

Now Americans have limited options to evacuate at an extremely dangerous moment with no government assistance. This admin is failing its citizens.

03.03.2026 13:12 πŸ‘ 1310 πŸ” 508 πŸ’¬ 56 πŸ“Œ 49

BREAKING: Spanish Prime Minister Pedro SΓ‘nchez has barred the U.S. from using Spanish military bases for attacks on Iran.

02.03.2026 13:45 πŸ‘ 4583 πŸ” 873 πŸ’¬ 63 πŸ“Œ 135
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One of my favourite sides of politics/media.

02.03.2026 10:20 πŸ‘ 13392 πŸ” 4255 πŸ’¬ 131 πŸ“Œ 173
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Pentagon tells Congress no sign that Iran was going to attack US first, sources say Trump administration officials acknowledged in closed-door briefings with congressional staff on Sunday that there was no intelligence suggesting Iran planned to attack U.S. forces first, two people f...

we reached the β€œno WMDs” phase in two days.

02.03.2026 12:45 πŸ‘ 7579 πŸ” 2227 πŸ’¬ 101 πŸ“Œ 108
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Prediction market trader 'Magamyman' made $553,000 on death of Iran's supreme leader It's the latest trade drawing scrutiny on the popular prediction market site for appearing to show an insider making profits on military secrets.

Wildly dystopian black mirror episode

www.npr.org/2026/03/01/n...

02.03.2026 10:38 πŸ‘ 29 πŸ” 5 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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β€˜Unbelievably dangerous’: experts sound alarm after ChatGPT Health fails to recognise medical emergencies Study finds ChatGPT Health did not recommend a hospital visit when medically necessary in more than half of cases

Study finds ChatGPT Health did not recommend a hospital visit when medically necessary in more than half of cases. www.theguardian.com/technology/2...

27.02.2026 19:47 πŸ‘ 1272 πŸ” 722 πŸ’¬ 43 πŸ“Œ 189

I have never seen a politician more directly copy this speech in my life

01.03.2026 22:13 πŸ‘ 8033 πŸ” 2083 πŸ’¬ 30 πŸ“Œ 34

I'd be more inclined to believe that Graham Platner is merely a dumbass if he was making different kinds of "mistakes" instead of one very specific type of "mistake" over and over

01.03.2026 20:47 πŸ‘ 5648 πŸ” 1093 πŸ’¬ 93 πŸ“Œ 52

Spanish PM Pedro SΓ‘nchez: β€œToday more than ever, it is essential to remember that one can be against a hateful regime as is the case with the Iranian regime…and at the same time be against an unjustified, dangerous military intervention outside of international law.”

01.03.2026 19:59 πŸ‘ 3300 πŸ” 1102 πŸ’¬ 70 πŸ“Œ 107
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Anthropic's Claude hits No. 1 on Apple's top free apps list after Pentagon rejection Claude has surpassed OpenAI's ChatGPT as the top free app in the U.S. on Apple's rankings.

Anthropic rises in Apple's top free app downloads list after clash with Pentagon, and after Defense Sec. Pete Hegseth asked the department to label Anthropic a supply-chain risk to national security... www.cnbc.com/2026/02/28/a...

01.03.2026 20:24 πŸ‘ 46 πŸ” 7 πŸ’¬ 2 πŸ“Œ 1

if the media had any integrity β€” and it doesn’t anymore β€” they’d be pointing out on a loop that Obama made a deal with Iran, Trump cancelled it because Obama is Black, and then Trump started a war on the pretense there is no deal

28.02.2026 12:54 πŸ‘ 4902 πŸ” 1610 πŸ’¬ 15 πŸ“Œ 47
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US-Israeli strike on girls' school kills at least 85 students, Iran's judiciary says At least 85 students have been killed in US-Israeli strikes that hit an Iranian girls' school in Hormozgan province, Iran's judiciary said on Saturday. Washington has not commented on the reported str...

We killed 85 schoolgirls. We are not the good guys.

28.02.2026 16:00 πŸ‘ 17018 πŸ” 6541 πŸ’¬ 469 πŸ“Œ 549
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This aged well. Note the author.

28.02.2026 13:27 πŸ‘ 16073 πŸ” 6222 πŸ’¬ 547 πŸ“Œ 359
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Core wholesale prices rose 0.8% in January, much more than expected

White House attacking the Bureau of Labor Statistics in 3… 2…

www.cnbc.com/2026/02/27/p...

27.02.2026 13:47 πŸ‘ 1 πŸ” 0 πŸ’¬ 0 πŸ“Œ 0
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Lost 19th century film by Méliès discovered at the Library | Timeless Library conservators recently made a startling discovery in a batch of decaying film reels -- a long-lost 1897 film by early cinema icon George Méliès. The French magician-turned-filmmaker's

"The 45-second film, made around 1897, was the first appearance on film of what might be called a robot"

HELL. YES.

26.02.2026 18:45 πŸ‘ 1810 πŸ” 668 πŸ’¬ 3 πŸ“Œ 155